One More Day
by thedoc617
Summary: Going back to earth for one full day to tell someone you love goodbye


Title: One More Day   
Author: Doc   
Email: laura_c@imagin.net   
Category: Angst, Alternate Universe, Carter/Lucy Romance   
Rating: PG   
Spoilers: All in the Family   
Disclaimer: I don't own ER, nor the characters, but I do own Stephen   
AUTHOR'S NOTES: I just found this dug up in my old stash of fanfics.   
Please enjoy.   
SUMMARY: Going back to earth for one full day to tell someone you love   
them  
Flashback:   
"I feel like an elephant sat on my chest."   
  
"We can't do this, you're the student and I'm the doctor."   
  
"Sometimes when you've done everything you can, even more   
than you thought you could, you have to walk away knowing   
you fought the good fight. You fought the good fight, Lucy,   
and tomorrow you'll fight another one."  
"Lucy, you bit me."  
  
"I have him, just advance the needle, good flow, you did   
it."   
  
"I think he may be psychotic."  
  
"Just forget it, Lucy."   
  
Tears ran down Lucy's face as she remembered him. Her last   
memory of him was him looking at her with pain and fear in   
his eyes. They did have good times together. She still   
remembered the time they raced all over Chicago looking for   
Corina's father. And the time she started her psyche   
rotation, and he missed her. She was on the roof of county   
right now, looking down at the city.   
"Why did I have to die?" She yelled into the night air.  
"I wish I were alive. I wish that I could eat pumpkin pie   
on Thanksgiving, and I want to go to sleep and actually   
wake up. I want to help people again." She sighed, and   
wiped away her tears. "I want to tell carter I love him one   
last time!" She whispered.   
The next thing she knew she was flying through the heavens.   
What did I do this time? She asked herself, as she hit the   
ground with a thud.   
"Ouch." She said as she realized what she felt. Pain? Pain!   
She looked at the palms of her hands which were pink and   
flesh-like instead of being ghostly white. What the? Just   
then she saw a familiar face in front of her. It was Denis   
Gant, her best friend in the next world.   
"Lucy, you got your wish. For one full day you are human.   
The only thing is that everyone thinks you're still alive.   
Tomorrow they will all forget what happens in the next   
twenty four hours. Everything." He said. "Since you are   
human, you can't see me." He said as he slowly disappeared.   
First his feet, then his calves, then his thighs   
disappeared into thin air.   
"Why did your legs disappear?" Lucy asked, in astonishment.  
"Because, you are 1/3 human right now. Soon, you will be   
all human, and I will be gone. You have to do this alone.   
Good luck Lucy, and don't do anything too stupid, okay."   
Denis said as his face disappeared.   
  
She suddenly realized where she was, she was right outside   
County General. The place that killed her, and yet kept her   
alive. She loved County, she loved the people there, and   
she loved what she did. She held her head high and walked   
into the hospital with pride.  
  
Chapter II  
  
She walked into the lounge and touched her nameplate on her   
locker. She wished it would stay here, but she knew all too   
well. She opened up her locker and put on her lab coat and   
stethoscope. Just then Carter walked into the lounge.   
"Hey Lucy, we've got an arm lac in three, can you take it?"   
Lucy's blood ran cold.   
"Exam room 3, right Carter?"   
"No, curtain area 3." She got a knot in her stomach.   
"Carter, I can't. Please don't make me go in there." She   
pleaded. He shrugged.   
"Okay, I'll give it to Abby. Are you okay, Lucy? You seem   
tense."   
"Just fine." She said as he walked away, confused. She   
couldn't bear going in there. She went to feel the scars on   
her neck and chest, but they weren't there. It was before   
this had happened. She put her lab coat on, and was ready   
for what hit her. As long as it wasn't curtain area three   
she could deal with it.   
She worked on various cases, and soon it was noon. Her   
stomach growled and she was quite hungry.   
"Randi, tell Dr. Weaver that I'm getting lunch." She said   
as she walked across the street. She walked in and sat at a   
table. Hey, it was her only day on earth for eternity, who   
said she couldn't go all out. It wasn't like she'd get fat.   
She ordered a double decker turkey bacon sub sandwich, with   
a side order of coleslaw and potato salad. And a sundae for   
desert.   
When she was full as she would ever be, before she was   
outside, she heard a loud ear piercing noise. The sky   
turned black, and as a natural reaction, she put her hands   
on her head and fell to the ground. Then the noise stopped.   
There was debris everywhere, and she felt her forehead and   
saw she had a small cut. She rummaged through the reckage,   
assisting help wherever she could. She only heard silence,   
which in this case was deafening. That meant there were   
perhaps no survivors. She then realized it was an explosion   
that happened. The door was blocked with wooden beams, so   
the ceiling could crumble any minute. She heard the sound   
of a child crying. Thinking that he was hurt, she crawled   
over.   
"Mommy!" he cried. Thinking he was hurt, Lucy checked him   
out, and saw not a scratch on him. But he still could have   
internal bleeding that nobody knew about.   
"Where's your mommy?" She asked, and he pointed under the   
rubble. Lucy checked her pulse, and she had none.   
See you soon. Lucy thought inwardly. She led the boy away   
from his dead mother, and proceeded to make small talk.   
"I'm Lucy, what's your name?" she asked to try to calm him   
down.   
"Stephen."  
"Lucy, my heart hurts." He said as he crawled into her lap.   
"On the inside I mean." He said as he hugged her tightly.   
"Mine does too." She said, as she could feel the young   
boy's heart beating against hers. Stephen stayed there   
until he was sound asleep. She lay him on the floor, and   
put her lab coat around him.   
Then she heard a soft groan. A soft, yet familiar tone. She   
went towards it, curious.   
"Lucy?" The voice asked weakly. She knew that voice, she   
dug and dug, her fingers raw and bleeding from the cement   
she dug at. And she gasped at what she found.   
"CARTER?!"  
  
Chapter III   
  
He was so filthy and so beat up, she didn't know it was   
really him until she read his lab coat. He was hanging onto   
consciousness for dear life.   
"Lucy, its you." He whispered.   
"Carter, I'm here." She said as she touched his cheek   
tenderly. She suddenly shifted from friend to doctor.   
"Carter, are you hurt?"   
"It hurts."   
"Where, John, where does it hurt?" Lucy asked, trying to   
feel for bruises and lacerations.   
"Does your neck hurt?" She asked as she stabilized his neck   
with her hands.   
"No, but my chest does." He said as she felt his chest and   
he yelped in pain.   
"Sorry about that. You probably have a rib fracture." She   
asked, trying to free him from the rest of the mess.   
"Where else does it hurt?"  
"My, my, my leg." He said as he started to shiver.   
"So c-c-c-cold." He whispered, on the verge of losing   
consciousness.   
"Carter, John, stay with me." She was losing him fast. She   
crawled to where Stephen was sleeping, not very far away.   
She just couldn't bear to disturb him.   
Just then there was another storm of dust. The ceiling   
couldn't hold much longer. She then remembered she had a   
coat on because it had just started to snow.   
She took off her jacket and pulled it around Carter. He was   
sweating now. She felt his head, and he was burning up with   
fever. Perhaps it was infection.   
"Lucy, please don't leave me. Don't go Lucy. Stay with me."   
He yelled, delirious with fever. She went over to him and   
took his hand.   
"I'm here, Carter. I'm not going anywhere. I promise I wont   
leave you." She said, knowing that tomorrow she would leave   
him. Just then she heard a cry from next to her. Stephen   
had woken up with a nightmare.   
"I had a dream my mommy went up there. And she was never   
going to come back." He cried as Lucy hugged him.  
"Don't worry, Stephen. Your mommy is safe. She feels no   
pain, trust me." Lucy hugged and rocked the small boy in   
her arms.   
Then there was a loud noise and Lucy threw herself against   
Carter and Stephen, shielding them from danger.   
She felt pain, and then darkness.   
  
  
When she woke, Carter had gone to sleep. Sleep for which he   
may not wake from. Stephen was okay, other than his head,   
which might need a few stitches. Her hands hurt, and she   
looked down to see blood dripping on her pants from how raw   
she had rubbed them. She crawled over to the hole and dug   
with all her might to get out. She suddenly felt dizzy and   
sleepy. Her mind snapped. What are the results of an   
explosion? Toxic gas.   
"Is anyone alive in there?" she heard out of a megaphone,   
but only faintly. She yelled and screamed with all her   
might.   
"Lucy, I'm going to go to sleep now, okay?" Stephen said as   
he sat down next to carter and fell into a deep sleep.   
"Stephen, no!" She said as she tried to wake him up. She   
heard the clinking of meatal, and then she saw the greatest   
thing on earth. And God said, let there be light. She was   
so tired, sleep was all her body needed, sleep she might   
not wake up from.  
  
Lucy woke to Elizabeth Corday and Kerry Weaver staring down   
at her. "Carter!" She yelled. As she came to understand   
the reality of everything, she bolted up, and felt a wave   
of dizziness hit her.   
"Woah, take it easy there. Carter's fine. He's got a broken   
leg, a few cracked ribs, a small infection, and he's   
unconscious from a concussion, but he's going to be fine.   
But he's a fighter, so I know he'll pull through.   
"Stephen?" She asked and Kerry looked down.   
"He's in surgery. Trying to repair internal injuries."   
Kerry said, as Lucy's eyes filled up with tears.   
"He'll be okay."   
"Do you want to see Carter soon, when he wakes up?"   
  
  
She wheeled herself up to his bed. He was so beat up. She   
put the back of her hand on his cheek, glad the fever went   
down.   
"Carter, I'm so sorry. How can you ever forgive me? I'm   
sorry I left you alone without a friend. Carter, you have   
to wake up, its not your time."   
In that instant, his heart monitor went insane, throwing   
PVC's and fibrillations.   
"I need a crash cart in here!" she yelled into the hall,   
but nobody answered.   
I don't want to do this, but I don't have any other choice.   
She knew her power, and she shouldn't use it. She knew the   
consequences. She put her hands on his chest, and put the   
life back into him. She knew the eternal consequences it   
had for her, but she had to. Carter's monitor beeped back   
to normal rhythm.   
"What I do for the man I love." She said, sighing deeply.   
She took his hand in hers and squeezed.   
"John, I know you can hear me. You have to wake up. I love   
you. There I said it. I've loved you since we fought the   
good fight . You faught the good fight, Carter, and   
tomorrow you'll fight another one." She said, as she felt   
pressure as his hand squeezed hers.   
"Lucy?" Carter groaned. "Was I dreaming, or did you just   
say what I thought you said?" He blinked sleepily, and Lucy   
blushed.   
"Lucy, come here." He said, gesturing with his hand.   
"I love you too." She pulled up fast. Was he hallucinating?   
Carter smiled one of his famous smiles that made Lucy's   
heart melt.   
"You will be a good doctor someday, Lucy. You stay so   
calm." He said.   
"I've loved you ever since you gave me that hickey in exam   
room 6."   
"Oh Carter." She said as she hugged him as tight as she   
could without hurting him. She started to cry.   
"Lucy, what's wrong?" She pulled away from his embrace and   
sat in her wheelchair.   
"Carter, tomorrow you will forget me. You will remember   
reality. I am dead. You and I were stabbed 11 months ago.   
In May, Abby caught you using drugs and Dr. Greene sent you   
to Atlanta on therapy. I got my wish that I would come back   
for just one day. Tomorrow I will be dead again."   
"But then why come back?"   
"To tell you that I'm in love with you, and that I am okay.   
I feel no pain, now and I'm happy." She said as she kissed   
him, long and slow, just as the clock struck twelve.   
"I will never forget you, Carter. Please never forget me. I   
will always be there. I have learned to hold on, but you   
need to learn to let go." She said as she slowly faded into   
nothing.  
  
Carter woke with a start, and looked down at his leg. The   
cast was still there. Something happened yesterday that he   
just couldn't put his finger on. Just then, Abby walked   
into the room.   
"Hey carter, how are you doing?"   
"What exactly happened to me."   
"Well, you were at Doc Magoo's yesterday, and there was an   
explosion. You and a six year old boy, Stephen, were the   
only ones who got out alive. He wants to talk to you."   
"Me? I don't even know the kid. But okay, I guess. "   
She brought in the boy, and he was holding something white.   
"Dr. Carter do you remember yesterday?" I don't remember   
much, except that there was this person's coat around me.   
Do you know who she is?" Stephen asked as he put the lab   
coat in Carter's arms. He gasped when he saw the stitching.   
L. Knight  
"Doctor Carter, we'll be okay. We just have to remember and   
try." Stephen said as he curled up beside carter and fell   
asleep.  
"We'll be okay, Stephen. We'll be okay."  
  
  
"Lucy, you know your behavior was unacceptable." The judge   
stated as Lucy put her head down guiltily. "You can be   
human, but this has gone too far."   
"WAIT!" A voice said as everyone's heads turned in the   
courtroom.   
"Don't do a thing to this girl. She saved my son, and let   
him have a friend, and not realize what was really going   
on. Please, I did not want to leave my son, but I know he   
is safe, and in good hands." The woman said as she showed   
them Dr. Carter and Stephen sleeping side by side, kind of   
like father and son.   
"I suppose that this will go as a warning, Ms. Knight. Just   
be sure it never happens again."  
"Yes, Sir."  
  
Both Carter and Stephen left with a sense of understanding,   
of the heavens, of the afterlife, and of each other.   
  
Finis 


End file.
